Strawberry Yogurt- From scratch..

I love yogurt and stack up fruit flavored yogurts in my refrigerator all the time J

Whenever I am home alone…this fruity yummy cold yogurt is my breakfast, lunch and dinner!!

Anyways this weekend I was in no mood for baking and chose to make this delight from scratch..

 Here is the recipe

1 L Low Fat Milk

1 tbspn Plain Yogurt - Live Yogurt Culture

3-4 tbspn fat Free Milk powder- I used Anlene Milk powder

1/ 2 Cup Strawberries

Sweetener of your choice- Honey, Agave nectar, Strawberry Jam or Sugar

Bring the Milk to boil , once it is boiled. Stir in the milk powder and let it cool a bit.

When the milk has cooled down a bit , but still warm- stir in the live yogurt culture . You can add a tablespoon of store bought yogurt, do check if it has live culture in the ingredients..

Let it sit in a warm place for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, you get a creamy yogurt!!

Now add the sweetener and flavoring of your choice

I added 2 tablespoons agave nectar and pureed 1.4 cup Strawberries and added to the yogurt and gave it a quick blend.

Chop the remaining 1.4 cup strawberries and serveJ

There you have the yummy healthy fruity yogurt!!

Muesli Cookies

All Oats lovers out there…this is for you guys:-)

I bet all Oats lovers will definitely be a fan of Muesli, Muesli is a yummy n healthy cereal made of rolled grains, dried fruits , seeds and bran

I love to have Muesli soaked overnight in Milk, unfortunately my hubby just hate Oats..

He says it tastes like Vaikkol…aka Hay…no clue on how he arrived at this simile!!

Anyways that never stopped me from baking goodies with Oats and successfully masking the hay-ish texture.

Here is one such successful recipe..

Here goes the recipe

100 gms Butter or Margarine at room temperature

80 gms light brown sugar

80 gms Crunchy Peanut butter

1 egg

55gms plain flour

½ tspn Baking powder

½ tspn All spice powder

Pinch of salt

220 gms Muesli

55gms Chopped Walnuts

With an electric mixer, cream the sugar and butter together until creamy.

Add in the egg and peanut butter and mix well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, spice powder and salt over the wet mix and stir to blend

Stir in the walnuts and muesli.

Drop rounded tablespoons of mix in a cookie pan about inch apart

Bake until lightly browned about 12-15 minutes

Cook on a wire rack and enjoy the crunchy delight

Low Fat Orange and Honey Loaf

It’s been sometime since I tried my hands on low fat bakes.

 I chose this low fat, guilt free tea bread from my favorite cook book.

As always this recipe is also a fool proof one..just love Martha day’s Baking bible

This light, citrusy n nutty loaf is a perfect accompaniment to a cup of hot teaJ

..and a perfect way to please my sweet tooth for breakfast

Here goes the recipe

Adapted from: Baking from Martha Day

385 gms Plain Flour

2 ½ tspn Baking powder

½ tspn Baking soda

Pinch of salt

30 gms Oil

250 ml Clear honey

1 egg

1 tbspn orange rind

175 ml Orange Juice

120 gms Chopped Walnuts

Pre heat oven to 170 Degree

Sift together the dry ingredients.

With an electric mixer, mix together the wet ingredients.

Add in the orange rind to the wet mixture and mix well.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in 3 batches. Stir in the walnuts

Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for 60-70 minutes.

Farfalle with Basil Pesto

After a weeklong gorging on good food from the trainings, birthday bashes and team lunches I have literally outgrownJ

Hope to get rid of the extra load through my marathon practicesJ

Yes, yours truly is going to take part in the Standard Chartered Marathon this year.

I love running and can easily run 3-5 kms in treadmill.

I was super excited about the marathon until I started practice in the park

Woke up early Saturday morning,slipped on to fav tracksuit, my dear running shoes on, pedometer duly buckled up and with my ipod, I happily strolled to the park.

And  gleefully started running..at 300 mts I started to feel tired , at 600 mts I was really tired and at 1 km I was panting like a dog.

I learned the hard way…running in treadmill and running in park under hot sun is way lot different.

And soon I went from Yeyyyyyyyy mood to Oougghhh mood..

God know how I am going to finish the marathon in 90 minL

I have read somewhere-" If you feel bad at 10 miles, you're in trouble. If you feel bad at 20 miles, you're normal. If you don't feel bad at 26 miles, you're abnormal."

I am dead tired in 1 mile so I assume I am in hell lot of trouble!!!

Anyways to cheer up my mood I made this fresh Pesto sauce and had some yummy pasta as my after training treatJ

Here goes the Recipe

 For Pesto sauce

1 Cup fresh Basil

1/4 Cup Pine nuts

1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2-3  tablespoon Grated Parmesan Cheese

Salt to Taste

150 gms Farfalle Pasta

Dry roast the Pine nuts for a few minutes.

In a food processor blend the Pesto, pine nuts, cheese.Ggradually add in the Olive Oil until it forms a smooth paste

There you have the fresh, creamy yummy pesto

Now cook the pasta as per the instructions until al-dente

Drain it and while still hot, mix it with pesto and njoy

A year closer to wisdom and A restaurant review

Sigh sigh,I am a year older..nah that is a depressing word. I prefer to stick to soothing phrases like more wiser..more matureJ

Anyways I have to say I had a fun day!! Had a good breakfast with dear hubby

Went for lunch with friends at Tampopo and had the most amazing Japanese cakes!!

And had dinner at 7 sensations..which lived up to its name!! Arousing all your 7 senses

I have been reading a lot about this place and have wanted to go to this place for a looong time

It lived up to my expectations and I am definitely going them again n again to get the Soy yogurt

The restaurant is located right in the heart of Singapore City in Millennia Walk.

It’s a vegetarian dining restaurant with a pretty good collection of food from different corners of world-Japanese, Korean, Italian, Nonya, Thai etc

The Staffs are really friendly, I chose 2 of their recommendation and it was just awesome!!

  

Now coming to the food…

Rainbow Makki for Appetizer

Lovely combination of fresh fruits and veggies, sweet nutty dressing. I was already impressedJ

Appetizer 2: Portobello mushroom

Mushrooms tasted great!! But a bit soggy and too cheesy for an appetizer. A bit of a turn down..

 Main course 1: Pineapple n Tempeh Fried Brownrice 

This was recommitted by the waitress and yes, it tasted great!! 

Main Course 2: Stir Fried Tom Yam BeeHoon with mashed Tofu

This was hubby’s choice. I am sooo going to order this next time. Light, tangy…perfectoooo

I couldn’t help scooping more n more from his plateJ

Dessert : Soy Yogurt

And here come the star who stole the show…Another recommendation from the sweet waitress

This is the bestest dessert you can ask for..Healthy and yummy ..

The light lemon ginger syrup+the Yogurt+fresh fruits+Nuts.Is there anything better than this?

I am going here definitely again n again to get cup of thisJ The taste is still lingering in my mouth …

So here is my review

Pros: Friendly staff, Cozy seating, Great array of vegetarian food to suite all tastes,  Keeping the best for last..Soy Yogurt dessert. Just one word to describe it , heavenly!!

Cons : Portions are a bit too less for the price.

Price: Around 25 dollar per head

Address: 9 Raffles Boulevard, Millenia Walk
P3-07 (3rd Floor), Parco Marina Bay
Singapore 039596
Tel: 6298 8198

B for Bagels

I have been missing all yummy recipes for the past few days. I was on 2 full day trainingJ

Now are you wondering why I am soo happy after the training!!

Not that it added a lot of value to my work..But I am almost certain that the last two days have definitely added at least few pounds to my weight and few mm around my waistJ

The food was absolutely sinfully delicious!!!

The second day of training I woke up and all I can think of was the lunch!! I couldn’t believe myself!! I have turned to a total foodieJ

Even now when I think about the huge array of desserts..I can’t help smiling

I almost wrote about how amazing the dessert were on the training feedback form..:-)

Lemme stop drooling over the desserts and come back to the Bagels

I made this last weekend and it was just perfect. All 6 bagels disappeared in less than an hour.[excuse the little self praise here :-)]

Here goes the recipe

Adapted from Videojug recipe here

2 cups bread flour

1 tbspn sugar

1/2 tspn salt

1 tbspn Olive oil

1 tspn instant yeast

1/2 + 2 tablespoons of warm water

To Poach the Bagels

4 tablespoon sugar

2 cups water

For dressing

Poppy seeds

Roasted sesame seeds

Whole Oats

Add all the flour, water, yeast, and sugar into the bowl of your mixer. Knead for roughly 4 minutes. Add the oil and the salt and continue kneading for a further 8 minutes until the mixture becomes smooth, elastic dough.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover it with a plastic bag and let it prove, for 40 minutes at room temperature.

Place it onto a clean working surface. Divide the dough evenly into six portions, roll each portion into a soft ball. Gently push you two thumps through the centre of the each ball and create a pretty big hole. Do watch the video, it really helps

Repeat the same process with the rest of the balls and place them onto the pre-lined tray.

Cover it once more with the same plastic bag and prove again for another 40 minutes.

While the bagels are nicely proving, place the saucepan onto a medium to high heat. Then add sugar and allow it to melt, to a golden sticky syrup. Add the water, taking great care not to get splattered and bring to the boil.

Turn on the oven to 200ºC

Gently place each bagel into the boiling, caramel water and allow them to boil for 1 minute on each side.

Dip the poached donuts on the dressing and gently press so that they

Transfer the bagels to the prelined baking tray and place them in oven to bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Allow them to cool down

Now don’t wait..Enjoy it with a liberal spreading of cream cheese

Muesli Muffins

I like to start my day with something sweet. And I really really love to have a sugary breakfastJ

..From simple bread butter jam to muffins , scones..and for Indi breakfast a spoon of sugar is a must must.

Bottom-line anything sweet is perfect for me. So sweet of me..na?!!!

Recently my fondness towards the sweet stuff has started showing around my waistline/arms..!!Sigh sigh

So I have been on a recipe hunt for healthy muffins for the past few weeks and made 6 different varieties of muffins over the last month

And this batch of Muesli muffins is definitely on the top of my fav recipe list

Crunchy, nutty, chewy, lightly sweet..A perfect muffin for breakfast.

Here goes the recipe

Muesli Muffins

120 gms Muesli- Used Almond/Apricot Muesli

120 gms flour

1/4 Cup Wheat germ

80 ml Oil- I used Grape seed oil

80 gms Brown Sugar

1 egg

250 ml butter milk [250 ml low fat milk +1 tablespoon yogurt]

1 tspn Baking powder

½ tspn Baking soda

1 tspn Cinnamon powder

Pinch of salt

In a bowl combine Muesli and butter milk and let it soak for an hour

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees

Beat the Oil, egg, sugar using an electric mixer until light and smooth.

Sift together the dry ingredients flour, baking powder, baking soda and spice powder.

Stir this into the wet ingredients alternating with the Muesli mix.

Add in the wheat germ and mix in until the dry ingredients are moistened and do not over mix.

Full in the muffin cups till 2/3^rd full and bake for 25 minutes.

Let it cool in a wire rack and enjoy the warm muffins with a cup of milk.